Articles

Publications archive

A dozen keynote articles from the last 40 years:'They make the rules: political routines and the generation of political bias' Policy & Politics vol.4, 1975 - They make the rules

What are you to do if you want to challenge what the powerful are doing? Confront them, and get defined as 'irresponsible' and be marginalised; or engage with them, and before you know it you find yourself incorporated into their world. This was my first published academic paper, based on my PhD research in Croydon, in which I analysed and illustrated what political scientists call the 'politics of non-decision-making'.

This article set out my argument that the growth of mass home ownership has fundamentally changed British society.It gives you access to capital accumulation over time, it may change your political views and allegiances, and it probably influences the way you think about your home and even your identity.

The growth of home ownership sparked major changes in British society, and some Conservatives claimed that the privatisation of Britain's nationalised industries was having similar effects by creating a 'people's capitalism'. But the parallel is false. The privatisations of the 1980s did little to empower consumers.

'Citizenship in a liberal society' in B.Turner (ed) Citizenship and social theory Sage, 1993 - Read on Google BooksBased on my Sussex professorial lecture, this article takes issue with those who claim modern citizenship rights necessitate an extensive welfare state. If we really want to promote public morality and social cohesion, we won't do it by giving people more welfare rights. Rather, we need to give people more responsibility for organising their own lives, in order to reinvigorate the 'little platoons' of home, family, neighbourhood and workplace.

My first publication on social mobility. Goldthorpe had shown that boys born to manual working class fathers were 3 or 4 times less likely to get professional-managerial jobs than boys born to professional-managerial fathers. But does this necessarily mean recruitment is non-meritocratic? If we lived in a perfect meritocracy where only your talent determines your success or failure in life, the brightest people would end up in the top positions, and they would tend to have bright children. We should expect to find their children doing better than other kids.

'Routes of success: Influences on the occupational attainment of young British males' (with Rod Bond) British Journal of Sociology, vol.50 1999- Routes of success

A compelling demonstration that the most important thing determining where people end up in the occupational system is not their class background, nor what kind of school they went to, but their ability, hard work and motivation. Using a structural equations model to sift through more than 70 variables affecting the lives of 17,000 people,we show that a simple IQ testtaken at age 11 accounts for half of all the explained variance in their occupational outcomes.

'Why capitalism is good for the soul' Policy vol.23, no 4, Summer 2007 - download PDF

Based on my 2007 debate with the author of 'Affluenza', Clive Hamilton. Capitalism doesn't inspire the idealistic young, like socialism or environmentalist politics do. But unlike these alternatives, it keeps on raising living standards right across the world, and it gives us more freedom than ever before in history to lead our own lives in the way we choose.

What are low ability workers to do when unskilled jobs disappear? Part I (Issue Analysis No.91, 2007) and Part II (Issue Analysis No.93, 2008), Centre for Independent Studies - download PDFs: Part I Part II

Technical innovation and the opening up of global markets have reduced demand for low-skilled labour in the advanced economies, with the result that many low-skilled workers end up on welfare (often on disability payments). Politicians want to train them for the new, high-tech jobs, but the evidence is that training schemes are ineffective. Many of these displaced workers have low cognitive ability. We need to find useful tasks for them to do which reflect their capabilities.

Poverty of ambition: why we need a new approach to tackling child poverty Policy Exchange Research Note, October 2009 - download PDF

In 2009, Parliament passed the Child Poverty Act which commits future governments to meeting four child poverty targets by 2020. But the definition and measurement of poverty is badly flawed, and the only way these targets could be met is by increasing the value of welfare benefits relative to the median wage. Far from solving the problem, this will make it worse by further disincentivising work. It would make more sense to target the causes of poverty (joblessness, single parenthood, substance abuse, truancy, etc) than its manifestations.

Father Figures: How absent fathers on welfare could pay meaningful child support Policy Exchange Research Report, March 2012 - download PDFIn Britain, absent fathers on welfare pay a maximum of £5 pw in child support. In USA and Germany they pay 6 or 7 times more. What can we learn from the Americans and the Germans? Download

Social mobility delusions Civitas, June 2102 - downloadBringing together the latest research on UK social mobility patterns, I show that politicians are wrong to say Britain is bottom of the international mobility rankings. They are also wrong to say mobility is declining, and that bright poor kids are falling behind dull rich kids at school"Comprehensively debunks Milburn" (Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times)"If you want to know the facts, Peter Saunders's pamphlets on social mobility are absolutely second-to-none" (Julia Hartley-Brewer, LBC Radio) Download

Remoralising the welfare state CIS Occasional Paper, no.131, March 2013 - downloadThree simple fairness rules for organising welfare: People who receive welfare should not end up better off than those who assist them; The less deserving should not be treated equally with the more deserving; Before anyone looks to the state (i.e. strangers) for help, they should enlist the support of their family.

Complete list of published articles, essays and papers, in date order

1975: 'They make the rules: political routines and the generation of political bias' Policy & Politics vol.4

1989: 'Space, urbanism and the created environment in the social theory of Anthony Giddens' in D.Held and J.Thompson (eds) Social theory of modern societies: Anthony Giddens and his critics Cambridge University Press

2009: 'Poverty of ambition: why we need a new approach to tackling child poverty' Policy Exchange Research Note, October

2009: Essays on Kolakowski's 'Main Currents in Marxism' and Murray's 'In Pursuit of Happiness and Good Government', In Chris Berg and Andrew Kemp (eds), One hundred great books of freedom (Connor Court Publishing)

2010: 'Difference, inequality and unfairness: The fallacies, errors and confusions in the Equality & Human Rights Commission report, How fair is Britain?' Civitas Online Report, October

2011: Featured Guest on The Economist online debate, 'This house believes the global elite serves the masses' http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/660